


A Selection of Sanders Sides Songfics

by MissNiles95



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Horror, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Gen, M/M, Multi, Platonic Relationships, Songfic, Sympathetic Remus, ask to tag if needed, musical AU, romantic relationships, suggestions for future chapters open, unrequited platonic relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-06 18:09:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20511284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissNiles95/pseuds/MissNiles95
Summary: Pretty much what it says on the tin: this collection of one-shots is an excuse for me to write a bunch of songfics inspired by stage and animated musicals for different Sanders Sides AUs. Suggestions and input are always welcome!





	1. Summary

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sanders Sides: Musical Oneshots](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20314405) by [pollyparrot8](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pollyparrot8/pseuds/pollyparrot8). 

> Tags and trigger warnings will be updated as they apply to each chapter. However, please feel free to ask me to tag something at any time.  
The Teen and Up rating is there just to be safe, don't expect smut or hard gore.

Well, I've gone and done it. I found a fandom that got me to start writing fanfiction again. I'll mostly be writing oneshots as practice. Though I have a number of WIPs already, I'm open to suggestions in the comments or via my tumblr renee-niels  
Below is a list of said WIPs and a short description of each. The list will be updated as it progresses. They're listed in alphabetical order, not the order in which they're being written.

The Beauty Underneath  
Source: Love Never Dies  
Characters: Remus, Virgil (platonic)  
Horror AU. A lonely eldritch monster mistakes a haunted mortal scholar for a kindred spirit. Their brush does not end well for either party.

The First Transformation  
Source: Jekyll & Hyde  
Characters: Logan  
Horror AU. In a desperate bid to obtain true control over his chaotic, emotional impulses, Dr. Keene's use of his own mind and body as a guinea pig goes horribly right.

Life After Life  
Source: Dracula the Musical  
Characters: Remus, Thomas Sanders (antagonistic)  
Fantasy AU. Before plunging into the depths of King Remus' tomb, Thomas had no idea what a mercy it was to die. The Lich King is not merciful.  
TW: mild body horror since Remus is all corpse-y as a lich, death

The Lusty Month of May  
Source: Camelot  
Characters: Roman, Remus (sibling)  
Fantasy AU. Twin princes make the most of their last carefree spring together before their respective coronations following the severance of their parents' kingdom.

Pitiful Children  
Source: Be More Chill  
Characters: Logan, Remus (antagonistic)  
Cyberpunk Dystopia AU. Remus is defective. Fortunately for him, LOGIC finds repairing defective units a more efficient use of resources than discarding them.  
TW: unreliable narrator, elements of mind control, possible body horror?

The Seven Deadly Virtues  
Source: Camelot  
Characters: Deceit, Patton (antagonistic)  
Fantasy AU. A draconic witch goads a questing knight who has come not to slay him, but lecture him.

Thankless Job  
Source: Repo! the Genetic Opera  
Characters: Remus  
Cyberpunk AU. Even with advanced augmentations making up for the frailty of human bodies, cyborgs don't live forever. Someone has to recycle the parts left over when one dies.  
TW: mild gore, Remus being Remus


	2. Remus & Virgil: The Beauty Underneath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cosmic Horror AU: A lonely eldritch monster mistakes a haunted mortal scholar for a kindred spirit. Their brush does not end well for either party.  
Source: Love Never Dies  
Pairings: Remus & Virgil, platonic, unrequited. ... Is unrequited platonic affection a thing?  
TW: sympathetic Remus, let me know if there's anything else anyone wants tagged

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I hate Love Never Dies with a burning passion. It's an unnecessary continuation of a good story that had an emotionally satisfying ending. By writing it, Sir Andy undid all of Erik's character development, assassinated Raoul's character and reduced Christine to a prop with vital signs.  
That said, The Beauty Underneath fucking slaps so I challenged myself to produce something good from this trash fire of a musical.  
Also I accidentally spent too much time on building the chapter's atmosphere. I'm kind of proud of myself for that because establishing setting is my biggest weakness as far as writing goes (having no discipline doesn't count because that's a general character flaw that applies to EVERYTHING in my life lol)

Dunnmerrow was a thoroughly unpleasant coastal town. Not because of the unfriendly locals, not because of the expected smell of fish and dead seaweed that seemed to seep into everything that passed through the docks, not even from the way Virgil Grayson swore that there were eyes on him every time he turned his back on a window or open door… But because of the Cove.

One immediately understood why nobody named it. Names give things purpose, a place in the order of human existence. You loved something when you gave it a name. There was nothing to love here, in this deeply, viscerally wrong place. Virgil gazed across the dark, still water from his spot on the beach, the rocky sand crunching safely under his boots as a cool breeze whipped through his hair. Whatever the season, whatever the weather, the Cove's water was stiller and colder than death. Not a wave, not a ripple disturbed it.

And yet, nobody could say for certain that it was empty.

Nobody ever had any inclination to test the Cove for life, nor had they seen any sign of it. Nobody cared to know if anything did, no, _ could _ live in that wrong place. Sea birds didn't settle on it. Fish didn't breach in it. Seaweed didn't die and drift to its surface. Children and beachcombers didn't collect discarded shells and bleached starfish on its shores. Virgil wouldn't be surprised if plankton and even microbes couldn't be detected in that deathly water, but you wouldn't catch him getting close enough to drop equipment into it! Regardless, bone-deep, he couldn't be sure that it truly was as dead as-

"An awesome sight, isn't she?"

Virgil jumped at the high, surprisingly loud voice behind him and whirled around. He'd expected to be completely alone as he contemplated the Cove, and hadn't heard the sand crunching under anyone's footsteps. So where had this man come from? The curly-haired stranger gave a bright, friendly smile and raised his hands in a placating, apologetic gesture. At that, Virgil allowed his body to relax minutely.

"Sorry, you scared the daylights out of me," he exhaled. The man laughed, high and airy, and dismissively waved one bony hand.

"No, no, I should apologize for disturbing you. Like I said, the Cove is an awesome sight, isn't she?" the stranger mused, hands on his hips as he turned to face the body of water.

"'Awesome' isn't the word I'd use for it."

"'Awesome' as in 'inspires awe,' friend. The Romantics called it 'sublime,' I believe. Oh, where's my head? Here I am, blathering on about nothing without introducing myself. Remus Woolfe," he went on, offering a hand to Virgil. The scholar stared at him for a moment, then slowly accepted the handshake.

"Virgil Grayson, from the University of Blackhall. Pleasure's all mine, Mr. Woolfe."

"'Mr. Woolfe,' he calls me! Oh please, Mr. Woolfe was my father~ … And my cane-up-his-ass brother. I insist you call me Remus, friend."

Virgil wasn't sure he'd be calling Remus 'friend' any time soon, but he managed a thin, civil smile. He hadn't noticed until now, but something about the town… The Cove… He really needed to be around people, even people as strange as the oddly loud man who had somehow managed to sneak up on him so easily.

Woolfe, Woolfe… The name was familiar… Ah! Now it struck him. Roman Woolfe, the only other remotely friendly face Virgil had met in town since he arrived here. The gentleman had offered pleasantries and given him directions to Logan Keene's library (not that the librarian was present, but oh well.) Roman's friendliness had cooled when Virgil admitted that he was in Dunnmerrow on Blackhall business, but he had remained polite. That was more than what could be said of the frigid townsfolk. Virgil was honestly just waiting for the other shoe to drop, for someone to turn hostile...

"... and I was positively ecstatic to learn that someone from Blackhall was nosing around our little corner of nowhere, you know. Oh, don't look so surprised, not everyone in town is a secretive ignoramus, some of us are _ happy _ to have curious folks like you stumble upon us. That Keene fellow, for one. Bright young man, he is. He understands, let me tell you. There are incredible things in the universe, and too few people with minds open enough to explore them." Remus had been chattering on, seemingly without breath, for about a solid minute before _ that _ caught Virgil's attention.

"You study these things, too?" the scholar asked, suddenly excited. The subtly graying gentleman beside him grinned a fraction of an inch wider, eyes lighting up in delight.

"Virgil, friend, I do more than study these things. I _ know _ these things. I _ live _ these things." With these cryptic words, Remus pulled off his left glove. Tattooed into his palm was an eye enclosed in a maw of vicious, needle-thin teeth. Virgil's gaze snapped to Remus', at once excited and terrified. It was true that there were a reasonable number of assumptions one could make about what a Blackhall scholar was doing in Dunnmerrow, but it wasn't as though the specific subject Virgil was pursuing here was widely known to _ everyone _ on campus!

"How did you know I was looking for information on the Oth-"

"Friend, I _ listen _ . Not enough folks do that in these parts, too many with their senses locked too tightly down, instinct buried too deep. Too many refuse to use the minds they were blessed with and don't bother to _ think _." Remus fixed his eyes on Virgil's, the still gloved hand almost reaching for the scholar's shoulder before its owner stopped himself.

"You listen, too, don't you? You know what I mean. You hear them _ sing. _ But you don't hear _ all _ of the song, as much as you want to. I can help, Virgil. I want to help. I… _ Need _ to help _ someone _."

The older man was strangely serious. His voice quivered and his hands trembled. Virgil first wanted to run, forget Dunnmerrow and Blackhall and the Woolfes and Keene and the Cove. He wanted to do as Odysseus did, to carry an oar inland until he met the first person who asked "Hey mister, what's that on your shoulder?" and know he was finally safe from the sea, b his heart screamed for him to grab Remus by both hands and beg him to tell all he knew, teach all he could, give all he offered until Virgil's mind broke from the terrible, awesome understanding he achieved.

"I'm listening."

"Are you, Virgil? To tell the truth, that mind of yours is locked up tighter than a miser's purse right now," Remus chuckled, leaning forward and tapping a thin finger lightly against Virgil's skull. Rude. Well, there went the intense atmosphere, the scholar thought as he huffily blew his dark hair out of his eyes.

"Besides, now isn't the right place for such… Topics of discussion. Come on, I'll take you somewhere we won't be disturbed."

That place wound up being the lighthouse overlooking the Cove. The abandoned, decrepit lighthouse that looked, sounded and smelled as though nothing living had been there in years, and humans hadn't touched it for decades. Remus strolled right through the splintered door and began to climb the stairs, but Virgil gave pause just past the threshold. It wasn't the unstable staircase, the rusty handrail, the busted windows… None of these were any deterrence to him. The all too eager look that Remus was giving him, however… If he was as deep in with the Others to have one of their cult's icons engraved into his flesh… Virgil knew he was playing with fire, but he began to climb after the other man. Then, moments later, he realized he was following him down the staircase instead of climbing up, without having turned around or his guide passing him.

The instant he realized that, he began to hear music.

_"Have you ever yearned to go_

_Past the world you think you know,_

_Been in thrall to the call of the beauty underneath?"_ Oh, so it was Remus that was singing... Virgil allowed himself to breathe again when he heard the voice in his head. At least this time, he knew the source of the _noise_ slithering in his skull, unlike the tuneless vocalizations and shrieking flutes and pounding drums he used to dream of before he learned how to close his mind.

_"Have you let it draw you in_

_Past the place where dreams begin,_

_Felt the full, breathless pull of the beauty underneath?"_ Finally, the pair stood together on a... Landing? Bottom floor? Virgil's head was already starting to spin from the effort of focusing on just Remus' voice as the 'lighthouse' warped around the two men. The scholar tried to brace himself against the rotting wooden door his guide gestured to, but it splintered and he fell.

And kept falling until he hit water... Then stone. Remus' hands were cold, colder than the water Virgil was inhaling, but solid and real as he helped the scholar anchor himself.

_"When the dark unfolds its wings,_

_Do you sense the strangest things?_

_Things no-one would ever guess,_

_Things mere words cannot express?"_ Remus asked, cautiously loosening his vice-like grip as Virgil slowly let himself breathe again and began to really see where the pair had landed... He forgot how to speak for an instant.

"Yes..." the scholar exhaled, dark eyes filling with wonder as he took in the cavernous hall, its roof and floor speckled with stars in formations and constellations he only barely recognized from his less legitimate studies at Blackhall. They took horrible, obscene shapes if he stared longer than a fraction of a second, living nightmares that vanished when he blinked, and yet... It was too incredible to ignore.

This was a place of immense power, power Virgil desperately wanted to understand.

_"Do you find yourself beguiled_

_By the dangerous and wild?_

_Do you feed on the need for the beauty underneath?_

_Have you felt your senses surge_

_And surrendered to the urge_

_And been hooked as you looked at the beauty underneath?"_ Remus took Virgil by the hand and led him away from the starry beasts, perhaps a little more roughly than he should, but given the hungry way they were starting to turn their horrible eyes upon him... It was probably for the best.

_"When you stare behind the night,_

_Can you glimpse its primal might?_

_Might you hunger to possess,_

_Hunger that you can't repress...?"_ Cold hands on Virgil's shoulders, an insistent voice with other singers in layered harmony calling him to focus back on his strange guide, another Virgil to his own Dante through... Not Hell, but he didn't know what to call this profound, profane place!

"Yes..." the scholar hissed through clenched teeth as he forced himself to focus on his surroundings, the new cavern of stars and seawater slowly arranging themselves into something more geometrical, something easier for his mind to take in as he allowed himself to wander, to take it in with his own eyes and hands.

_"It seems so beautiful,_

_So strange yet beautiful._

_Everything's just as you say..."_ he crooned softly, eyes alight with fascination as Remus watched. The older man's hands eventually settled at his sides, a pensive look crossing his thin face.

_"And he's so beautiful,_

_Perhaps too beautiful._

_What I suspect cannot be, and yet somehow we both see_

_The very same way...!"_ Remus murmured to himself. Unaware of this, Virgil suddenly whirled to face him. The look on his face was desperate, hungry, but not the hateful hunger he had sensed from the starry beasts... The very same hunger that gnawed at Remus' own soul at that moment. God in Heaven, if only the younger man could see the way he was _glowing_ in this place...

_"Is there music in your head?_

_Have you followed where it's led_

_And been graced with a taste of the beauty underneath?_

_Does it fill your every sense?_

_Is it terribly intense?_

_Tell me you need it too, need the beauty underneath!"_ the younger man pleaded, finally giving in to his desire to snatch Remus by the wrists and plead with him to make him understand. There was an element to Remus that he couldn't put his finger on, something about the older man that seemed to bleed from under his skin, from the corner of his upturned mouth, something on the corner of Virgil's vision that taunted him with how little he was really seeing... How little his nightmares truly told him until he finally had to shut them out of his mind completely.

_"When it lifts its voice and sings,_

_Don't you feel amazing things?_

_Things you know you can't confess,_

_Things you thirst for nonetheless?"_ the pair harmonized as Virgil realized what he was doing and withdrew his hands, as though burned.

_"It's all so beautiful..."_

"Can it be-?"

_"Almost too beautiful!"_ Indeed, Virgil had to screw his eyes shut to stop the tears beginning to leak from their corners.

_"Do you see what I see?"_

"Heavenly-!"

_"To him it's beautiful..._

_My world is beautiful!"_ Remus, for his own part, nearly sobbed in joy as the revelation crashed upon him like a wave that would never in the Cove. Could it be that he was right for once in his long, lonely life? Could he have finally found someone other than Roman, someone like _him? _

_"How can this be what it seems,_

_All of my most secret dreams_

_Somehow set free?"_

Yes, Virgil was beginning to understand. This place of power had Remus at its center, somehow... He just. He needed to peel back the layers. He needed to _know_ how they fit together.

_"You can feel it?"_ Remus asked.

"Yes..."

_"Come closer..."_ Remus beckoned. Virgil grasped his hands for a third time. Third time's the charm it seemed, as this time, he didn't pull away no matter how the contact seared into his flesh. No matter how the cold, clammy tendrils lashing around his wrists froze him down to his bones.

"Yes!"

_"You've no fear of the beauty underneath..._

_You can face it?"_

"Yes." Virgil had long since lost track of the other voices singing beneath the two, their vocalizations a steady drumbeat to the shrill flutes of his nightmares.

_"You can take it?"_

"Yes!" 

_"You see through to the beauty underneath!_

_To the splendor-"_

_"To the splendor!"_

_"And the glory-"_

_"And the glory!"_

_"To the truth of the beauty underneath!_

_You'll accept it?"_

"Yes!"

_"You'll embrace it?"_

"Yes!"

_"Let me show you the beauty underneath!_

_To the splendor, and the glory,_

_To the truth of the beauty underneath!_

_You'll accept it! You'll embrace it! Let me show y**ou the b<strike>e aut y un der-"</strike>**_

Virgil's primeval scream of visceral horror stabbed into Remus' gut. As he finally saw the other's true face,the mindscape the pair had built shattered. He reeled back into the rusty railing, very nearly tumbling down the lighthouse steps. He fell down a few, but mercifully managed to pull himself back to his feet before he broke his neck in his blind panic. He didn't see the threshold of the lighthouse as he barreled into Roman, didn't hear Remus' twin as he tried to calm him with gentle words of concern, didn't feel himself faint into the other Woolfe brother's arms. He didn't know how he had known to be there, how he had come to be at the lighthouse at just that moment, all he knew before he knew nothing was that it was too much to know.

Remus, for his part, had retreated into the Cove with a wrenching cry of his own grief when he realized he had torn the illusion to shreds. For the first time, the Cove boiled and heaved in his frustration and loneliness as he sank into her black abyss.


End file.
